Little Miss Bubblegum
by R. Gatz
Summary: What will happen when Dwayne meets a girl? Smart-aleck, gum-chewing Tallis. Irritating yet irresistible. DwayneXOC. Read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

I was in the car. We'd just got back to Albuquerque, and Mom and Dad had gone to the corner shop to pick up some sweet potatoes and carrots. Olive was listening to her kiddy-pop, and Frank was writing out a rough sketch of his next lecture on Marcel Proust. I myself was writing "COLORBLIND" six hundred times in my notebook.

_COLORBLIND COLORBLIND COLORBLIND_

I was on my last page. Crap.

"Hey, Dwayne," said Frank, putting down his pen. "Which sounds better for my lecture - Marcel Proust was a _modest_ author or an _unpretentious _author?"

I got out my pen and wrote "unpretentious". I ripped the last page out. I showed the notebook to Frank.

"Oh, your notebook's finished."

I beckoned for money.

"Money, oh sure. How much do notebooks cost these days?"

I shrugged.

Frank searched his pockets, and came up with six dollars and three cents. Olive took off her headphones, saw the money, and said "Buy me a raspberry slushie,"

Frank put the money in my hand. I smiled thankfully, and hopped out of the car.

The Last Chance Corner Shop I knew so well, was the worst last chance shop ever, in short, but it had a large supply in notebooks. I had the choice of a thick little notebook with a plastic cover or... well, that's all they had.

But it would have to do. I walked to the shop. Outside were a pack of girls, surrounding this girl with red hair who was blowing pink bubblegum. I'd never seen them before, but they were all wearing the school uniform, so they must have been freshman starting next year. I remember when I was a freshman last year. I remember my class being so meek and innocent. These girls were the very opposite. They were giggling about what they did with their boyfriends. Well, the girl blowing bubblegum - I nicknamed her the bubblegum girl- wasn't. She was dismissing her acquaintances antics as "childish" and giving detailed accounts of _her_ exploits.

The whole pack of girls howled like wolves when they saw me pass.

"Hey, gawky!" The bubblegum girl called, to the laughter of her friends.

I turned to her. She must have seen the six dollars and three cents. She pulled out her bubblegum, and tossed it straight into my hand. Her friends positively _yelped_ with laughter.

"I'm all out. Buy me some bubblegum, gawky."

It was obviously just a trick to see how I'd try to ignore them, but I decided I'd show them buffoons. As I walked past her into the shop, the pack snickered.

The Last Chance Corner Shop was full of gum, but I searched and searched until I stumbled upon bubblegum the perfect shade of pink. I picked up a green notebook with a red plastic cover and had just enough left to buy a mini raspberry slushie for Olive.

As I walked out the door, the pack of girls started howling.

"Where's my bubblegum, gawky?" Laughed bubblegum girl.

I took the pack of bubblegum out of my pocket and thrust it at her. This took her by surprise. She stared at me for a second. I flipped open my notebook and wrote:

_Ta-da!_

She anxiously put her weary jaws into a piece of gum and blew a gigantic bubble. Straight after, she took the piece out of her mouth and into her hand and walked up to me. She looked down at the page of my notebook. She forced the sticky gum out of her hand and slapped it on the page of my notebook. The laughter of the pack was a deafening roar now. I just walked away and jumped into the car


	2. Chapter 2

Mom and Richard came back with buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Olive, Frank and I devoured them hungrily as Richard drove us home. When we got there, the house seemed much lonelier. We sat at the table, silent, until Richard started muttering quietly.

"I might get a job," he muttered. "At the drug store downtown."

"But Richard!" Mom exclaimed.

"But Richard what?" asked Richard dryly.

"What about your nine-step program?"

"It's gone down the shitho-" Olive looked at him- "the toilet."

I snickered at his refusal to swear in front of Olive. Richard tried to get on with me, but that didn't stop him from shooting a glare in my direction.

"It's 'bout time you got a job, too, Dwayne. Gotta bring money home."

"Richard, that's all you've been talking about since we left California," Mom accused.

"Well why wouldn't I?" Richard shot back. "We're gonna be broke with you giving up the graveyard shift and I with a shi-" Olive looked at him- "very bad nine step program. Frank can't even work as an accountant as he'll probably try to slit his wrists with the stapler!"

Frank looked down. Richard finally realized what he'd said.

"Frank- buddy, I- I didn't mean it. Sorry. No offence meant."

"None taken."

"Daddy, can I have some more chicken?" Olive asked, finishing off her chicken bone.

Richard sighed. "Olive, you've eaten a whole bucket of chicken."

"I _know_, but I want some more."

Richard sighed again. "If you keep eating like this, you're going to get very fa-"

He stumbled across the forbidden F-word. We all stared at him, disgusted he would say such a thing.

"I had to tell her. Eating too much will make her fa- fat."

Mom and Frank said and I wrote: _Shut UP Richard_

Thank God the conversation ended there, as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Declared Olive, running to the door. She opened the door, to reveal both smiling man and woman.

"You must be the new neighbors!" Mom exclaimed.

"Yes, we're the Geralds." said the Geralds woman. "And this is our daughter, Tallis." She pulled a small fourteen-year old into view. She was quite buxom, with red hair and was wearing a cotton blue dress. I had no idea who she was. Until she blew a giant bubble in my face.


	3. Chapter 3

"Tallis!" scolded Mr Gerald. Tallis just grinned.

"So you must be the new neighbors," said Mom.

"That's us!" chirped Mr and Mrs Gerald.

"Well, please come in." Mom welcomed them. "We're just having dinner."

Tallis peered past her. "You have KFCs?"

Mom blushed. "Uh huh."

"Can I have some?"

"Um, sure, share with Dwayne."

She ran inside, and noisily pulled up a chair beside me. She grabbed the bucket of chicken and dug in.

"So, um, Tal," Richard began.

"Tallis." said Tallis sharply.

"So, uh, _Tallis_,"_  
_

"Yes?"

"Whaddya plan to do when you're older?" He asked, desperate to move onto someone else's future.

"I wanna be an actress," She declared, nibbling on a chicken drumstick.

"How do you plan to do that?"

"I dunno. Get lucky."

Olive, Frank and I almost gasped when she said that. We'd been brainwashed to go by Richard's motto, _Luck is For Losers, _and half expected him to lecture her.

"Oh, get lucky?" Richard repeated.

"Yep."

"You mean you're not going to put the hard work in?"

"Nope."

"Oh."

I sniggered. For the first time, Richard's confidence diminished, and he blushed as he tried to ask me what was so funny.

"Dw- Dwayne, what's so funny?"

I got out my pen and notebook and wrote _Nothing, Richie."_

Richard blushed again. "Don't call me Richie!"

I wrote _Sure thing, Rich._

"Why doesn't it speak?" Tallis asked.

"He's taken a vow of silence," Frank explained.

"Till he gets to flight school," Olive added.

"But it's unlikely he ever will," Richard finished. "He's colorblind."

I scowled at him. He was crashing everyone's dreams just so he wouldn't have to look at his own crashed dream.

I wrote _Richard is being an ass until his nine-step program gets off the ground. But that's never going to happen, cos he's too much of a LOSER!_

Richard blushed.

Tallis laughed, but it was clear she was bored.

"I'm bored," she moaned.

"Tallis!" Mrs Gerald scolded.

"Maybe Dwayne can show you his room," Mom offered. I stared at her.

"Come on Dwayne."

I got up from the table and led Tallis to my room.

"It's pretty dingy," She commented.

_Thanks, _I wrote, dripping with sarcasm.

"You're more than welcome."


End file.
